


before I knew I had begun

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: Primeval
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-20 12:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13717725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: Ryan doesn't notice he's falling in love with Stephen until he's already gone and done it.





	before I knew I had begun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cordeliadelayne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/gifts).



Ryan's lost track of how it started. He dimly remembers a time when it was a simple helping hand,  a quick assist so one of them didn’t have to do something alone. So he didn't have to spend all his weekends of slow recovery by himself, so Stephen didn't have to walk into conference drinks alone and face the whispers of the entire palaeontological community as he tried to establish that he had never been just Cutter's amanuensis. They're used to watching out for each other, and this is just more of the same.

 

According to the therapist Ryan still hasn't been able to get rid of, their avoidance of isolation is a good thing, especially given that he and his boyfriend are avoiding co-dependency in an emotionally healthy fashion.

 

"Well, we're different people, it only stands to reason we won't want to share everything; nothing's going to make me want to spend half a decade in the back catalogue of the Natural History Museum," Ryan said, and then his brain caught up with him. "What?"

 

"Stephen," the therapist prompts, "your boyfriend - unless you prefer to avoid labels, of course."

 

"He's not, uh. We're not dating. We're just friends."

 

The therapist doesn't seem altogether convinced, and when Ryan thinks about Stephen pottering around Tesco with a weekly shop waiting to pick Ryan up and the load of Stephen's laundry spinning around his washing machine, Ryan isn't either.

 

Look - some people had assumed, at the last conference, at the last regimental thing he'd been expected to turn up to. Ryan had come along as company, or Stephen had come along as company, but people did assume. And neither of them corrected anyone.

 

Well, Ryan corrected Claire Bradley, but he knew the second the words came out of his mouth that she didn't believe him.

 

So what? he thinks belligerently, jogging down the steps. His car is idling on the other side of the street; Stephen is sitting in the front reading a book. A review copy of some kind.

 

Let them think what they think, Ryan tells himself as he taps on the window and opens the passenger door. Stephen smiles up at him.

 

All Ryan cares about is what Stephen wants; Ryan hopes the answer is him.

 

"Got the biscuits you like," Stephen says, putting the car in gear.

 

"Thanks," Ryan said, and then adds: "You're going to turn me into a fat bastard."

 

"Get out and exercise more, then," Stephen retorts. "Your therapist will approve."

 

(My therapist thinks we’re dating, Ryan does not say.)

 

"Maybe," Ryan says. "Want to go for a run this evening? The woods out near my place are nice around sunset. If you don't mind scaring a few stupid kids."

 

Stephen's grin is glorious. "That sounds like the whole appeal. Yeah, I'm in, if you're okay with me staying over. The buses back to my place get a bit dodgy after five - never turn up when they should."

 

That leaves some kind of small warm glow burning in the space behind Ryan's breastbone. It's an odd feeling, but he likes it.

 

"That's never a problem," Ryan says. "You know that."

 

Stephen's grin only gets broader.

 

Yeah.

 

Ryan doesn't know how this started, but he knows how he fully intends it to end.


End file.
